Tuesday, December 29, 2009

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas (or whatever you celebrate). My Christmas was really great. I went to my parents, where we had a pretty quiet Christmas. I did get some tatting done, which I will now show you.

The first motif is the one I told you about in my last post that needed some stiffening and shaping before I could show you.

This is the Bell Ornament from Heirloom Treasures in Tatting, an Annie's Attic Publication. This is a really nice pattern to tat. It is made in 11 rounds, and thus has 11 cut and ties. Utilizing split rings and chains, I reduced the number of cut & ties down to four. I could have done it in three, but I need to add some thread before beginning the eighth round. For this motif, I used Lizbeth size 20 in silver, #605. The last round has some silver beads, and I added some ribbon. And a little jingle bell inside. This is motif #10 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

My next piece is from Lene Bjørn's book 24 Snowflakes in Tatting.

This is The Third Day of Christmas snowflake. This is a nice snowflake to make. It isn't hard, and tats up pretty rapidly. I think I tatted the centre a little too tightly. I noticed after I made it that the centre chains are supposed to lie above the previous row, not behind them as I tatted it. I still think it is a really nice snowflake. One of these days I will have to tat the snowflake in Pamela's Rainbow Brite HDT. Thread stats: I used Lizbeth size 20, #663 (Dark Turquoise) for the centre and Lizbeth size 20 in colour #142, Turquoise Twist for the outer round. This will be motif #11.

The next snowflake is another snowflake from Lene Bjørn's book.

This is The Second Day of Christmas snowflake. This is a really nice snowflake, however it needed A Lot of blocking in order to make it look presentable. If lace could scream, I'm sure the neighbours would have called the police. OK, I may be exaggerating a bit. Thread stats: for this snowflake, I used Lizbeth size 20 in colour # 611, Gold. This will be motif #12 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

I did tat another motif, but I haven't scanned it yet. I'll have it ready for the next post. That's all for now. I'm hoping to get a little bit of tatting done tonight yet. I bought myself a copy of The Complete Fourth Series of Doctor Who, which I am currently watching (though, when you read this, I probably won't be). This is probably my favourite series/season of the new Doctor Who, however I don't like the way this series ends. I found it very unfortunate that the Doctor has to wipe Donna's mind. But that's just my opinion. I'll stop talking now, and will get to my tatting. Oh, before I forget, Be-Stitched is currently having a sale right now. Use the coupon code SALE2009 to get 20% off your entire order until Midnight Dec. 31. And yeah, I ordered more Lizbeth thread. VBG! Later.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

I was kinda hoping to post a little earlier, but I guess I got a little busy. I have managed some tatting, which I will now show you. At least most of it. I have one piece that needs stiffening, and haven't done it yet. I will (hopefully) get pictures once it is finished.

The first tatted motif is a Jane Eborall original. It is, of course, Jane's Snowsettia,

This is a really cool pattern by our very own Jane Eborall. It isn't difficult, though there are a lot of split rings. And juggling four shuttles took some practice (and an extra arm or two would have been nice as well). I ended up placing the two unused shuttles in a small ziploc bag while tatting with the other two. I thought the colours I chose would look good, but the two "conjoined" snowflakes kinda blend together. I will be making this design again. I saw a really cool colour combo on another blog. This will be my 7th motif of my Third 25 Motif Challenge. Thread stats: I used Lizbeth size 20 in colour #116 (Christmas Delight) and DMC Cordonnet size 20 in white.

The next motif is one you should have seen on Pamela's blog. It is The Sixth Day of December from Lene Bjørn's book 24 Snowflakes in Tatting.I have had this book for a few years, but I have only made one snowflake from it. Like many others, Pamela has inspired me to try some of the patterns in the book. For this snowflake, I used Lizbeth size 20 in colour #656 Dark Wedgewood, one of the new colours of Lizbeth I recently bought. I love this colour! I bought it in both size 20 & 40. And its all mine! I'm not kidding. This is motif #8.

The last motif is another one that I'm quite certain you all have seen. It is Nancy Tracy's Tatted Tree:

I have made this pattern before, but I didn't get a decent photo of it. This is a really nice pattern to tat. It's not difficult, and easily deserves the beginner level Nancy has given it. I'm not sure you can tell, but I purposely made the picots somewhat uneven in length. Not dramatically, but enough that it should be noticeable. I thought the tree looks better with the picots uneven; its more realistic IMHO. For this motif, I used Flora size 20 thread in colour #230. This is motif #9 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

That's about all for now. I will be away from Dec. 23-26 for Christmas. I don't know if I will close my shop though. I think I will just put up an announcement on the front page. I will try to post again before I go. My parent don't have high speed yet. I hope to get a lot of tatting done, and I'll post about it when I get back. Till next time.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Before I begin the tatting portion of this blog post, I want to make a quick shop announcement. I'll make it short. I have decided to offer free shipping to Canada and the United States for the month of December. Overseas shipping has been reduced by the US shipping amount. OK, enough of that. Time for the tatting.

My previous post was about the bookmark I received from TattingChic. This time I will show off the bookmark I made TattingChic. After scanning through websites and pattern books, I decided to use a motif from Mary Konior's Tatting With Visual Patterns. I chose "Patchwork".

The above motif was actually the third motif I made for Tattingchic's bookmark. However, on the third repeat, just before I was going to join it with the first two, I made a mistake-sorry, design variation. I made one of the large chains (at the top in the above photo) smaller than the other. I didn't want to retro-tat to fix the mistake-er, design variation, and I couldn't join it to the completed two motifs. So I just finished the motif. I'm sure I find some use for it.

I really like how it came out. Please note: I don't remember if I blocked the bookmark before or after scanning. So it probably looks better than the above photo. Anyway, here are some stats for the bookmark. I used Lizbeth size 40 thread in colour #120 Denim Whisper. TattingChic likes pink and other "girly" colours, and this was as close I could get. I have to admit, I can't say I have ever owned anything denim with pink in it. I usually think of denim as shades of blue. But, its still a nice colourway. This will be #6 of my Third 25 Motif Challenge.

Finally I decided to treat myself to some more Lizbeth thread. I love this stuff! I wanted to get a few of the new colours that had been recently added to the growing list of colours. I would like to mention that Handy Hands isn't the only place to buy Lizbeth thread. Both DS9Designs and Be-Stitched carry Lizbeth. I ordered from DS9Designs since they also carry Superior Threads products such as King Tut and Perfect Quilter threads. But Be-Stitched has cheaper shipping options, which is nice when you only want a few balls of thread.

That's all for now. I was hoping to have the pattern by Jane finished, but I've spent the last few days working on chainmaille stuff for my shop. Hopefully I can do some tatting after work tomorrow. Later.